Immigration lawyers fear offices being targeted

Lawyers said they feared being targeted after a list of immigration centres was circulated on social media

Immigration lawyers say they fear being attacked after their workplaces were on a list of offices circulated on social media.

They told the BBC they had been advised by police to work from home, board up office windows and install fireproof letterboxes.

But one said she would not be cowed by the threats, saying: "No-one is going to intimidate me."

The list was initially published on the Telegram messaging app along with the phrase “no more immigration” and other anti-migration sentiment, and has been shared thousands of times.

The Telegram group was created last week, hours after the Southport attack, and grew to 15,000 members by Monday night. The message has since been reposted many more times.

It follows disorder in many UK towns and cities over the last week, fuelled by a false rumour spread online that the Southport attack suspect was an asylum seeker.

One immigration lawyer on the list told the BBC she had been repeatedly threatened and has had to take her website down and cancel all her face-to-face appointments.

She said: “On Monday I started getting the messages: 'You’re on a hitlist.'

"I’m a migrant. I’ve come here and tried to integrate; I’ve built my business and raised my family.

“People have been calling up my office to threaten and insult me. I’m just trying to do my job.

“I’ve fought injustice all my life – no-one is going to intimidate me.”

Another said he had been reassured by the police response, but had removed staff details from his website and boarded up office windows.

“It’s surreal, nothing like this has ever happened before, we don’t even cover asylum seekers,” he said.

“There’s some really stupid people out there, making leaps of logic from what happened in Southport to immigration advisers.”

One lawyer in the North East said he had been forced to close his office.

“I am worried. I’m not angry,” he said. “I am not the enemy. They have a right to protest but I would request for them to do it in a peaceful way.”

The Law Society has been supporting the solicitors named on the list.

“They are worried about themselves, their staff and also their clients - who are under threat because they [lawyers] are seeing and speaking to them in asylum hotels," its president Nick Emmerson said.

"There is a real and specific threat to named firms with their addresses being circulated on social media."

“It’s a very difficult moment, large numbers of firms are affected and it’s after quite a few years where immigration lawyers have been attacked for doing their jobs.”

He said it was reassuring that every lawyer reported being supported by police but added “there isn’t much we can really advise except don’t go to work and don’t meet clients. But how long are we meant to advise people to do that?”

Police sources say nearly 6,000 public order officers are mobilised to respond to disorder in the coming days, with at least 30 potential gatherings planned for Wednesday.

The Met police said it “knew of events planned by hateful and divisive groups across the capital tomorrow” and would use every power, tactic and tool available to prevent further scenes of disorder.